Thursday, September 4, 2014

A LOT of important news today

Update

Things are going well. At rehab Wednesday, I did the usual
plus added 30 reps on the lap pull. O2 staying in the 95% to 99% range. Did
some baking, worked on a revision of our Condo Association's declaration,
Bylaws and Rules (a tedious task), and plowed through a lot of email to create this post. A LOT of important items today.
~Bob

Excerpt: This was always nonsense, but then again so much of
the hype about Obama in the early days of his presidency was nonsensical. Still
it does contribute to the poignancy of the moment. I’m referring specifically
to the Islamic State and their celebration of slavery. MEMRI has
excerpts of Facebook chats between British and French supporters of the group
as they discuss the great news that you can buy Yazidi women as sex
slaves.

Worth reading: The Obama economy is not working for
the Democrats. By Ed Rogers

Excerpt: At Milwaukee Laborfest in Wisconsin this past weekend, President Obama
spoke about how he and the Democrats believe the American economy has
strengthened over the last six years. The president told the crowd that “by almost every
measure, the American economy and American workers are better off than when I
took office.” That just isn’t true. And a trove of new analysis proves my
point.

Excerpt: Only lunatics from North
Korea or Iran
once mumbled about using nuclear weapons against their supposed enemies. Now
Vladimir Putin, after gobbling up the Crimea, points to his nuclear arsenal and
warns the West not to “mess” with Russia. The Middle
East terrorist group the Islamic State keeps beheading its
captives and threatening the West. Meanwhile Obama admits to the world that we
“don’t have a strategy yet” for dealing with such barbaric terrorists. Not long
ago he compared them to “jayvees.” Egypt
is bombing Libya, which America once
bombed and then left. (In 2012, Obama famously bragged that he had "Al
Qaeda on the run." Looking at the world, it seems to me that in the past
five years of Obama, the Islamist militants have civilization on the run. ~Bob)

What your 1st-grade life says about the
rest of it

Excerpt: In the
beginning, when they knew just where to find everyone, they pulled the children
out of their classrooms. They sat in any quiet corner of the schools they could
claim: the sociologists from Johns Hopkins and, one at a time, the excitable
first-graders. Monica Jaundoo, whose parents never made it past the eighth
grade. Danté Washington, a boy with a temper and a dad who drank too much. Ed
Klein, who came from a poor white part of town where his mother sold cocaine.
(I tell my co-workers…there are 4 factors required for success: talent, desire,
encouragement, and resources. See what’s missing here and where the focus of
problem solving needs to be…--G)

5 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die: If we're genuinely
committed to improving the circumstances of women, we need to get the facts
straight. By Christina Hoff Sommers

Excerpt: Much of what we hear about the plight of American
women is false. Some faux facts have been repeated so often they are almost
beyond the reach of critical analysis. Though they are baseless, these canards
have become the foundation of Congressional debates, the inspiration for new
legislation and the focus of college programs. Here are five of the most
popular myths that should be rejected by all who are genuinely committed to
improving the circumstances of women: (Looking for perfection is always a bit
silly, but continuing to look for improvement has always been a part of America. --Del)

Excerpt: I'm in Washington
today to attend the annual
meeting of the American Political Science Association. The timing is
fortuitous, because I'm pondering a number of big questions these days and I'll
be interested to see what some of the nation's best scholars think about them.
So for what they may be worth, here are my Top 10 Foreign Policy Puzzles: (The
professor has come up with a reasonable summary of major problems in the world.
They aren't the only ones, I think that overpopulation and depletion of natural
resources are pretty serious, and the decline of much of Western Civilization
is no small matter either, but there is no doubt we are all victims of the
ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". On number
8, the author is a full believer in AGW and writes as if it's "settled
science", which is most certainly is not. On top of which, were the idea
correct, there is absolutely NOTHING that human beings can do to stop it at
this point, and it will only get worse because we have 6+ billion people on the
planet, and more of them are burning oil and coal all the time. The USA could
cripple its own industries and raise the cost of living markedly, and achieve
nothing but make the carbon credit brokers super rich. I would say the question
is, will the near-panic propaganda about "Global
Warming" finally die down or not? --Del. He's at Harvard, Del.
It's like being a Cardinal--you are required to believe in certain things. AGW
is one of them. ~Bob)

Excerpt: The official at the center of the IRS tea party
scandal once dismissed complaints that labor unions were not reporting millions
of dollars in political activities on their tax forms, according to an email
obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Read more at
http://lastresistance.com/7114/emails-prove-irs-head-ignored-dirty-money-liberal-unions-persecuting-conservatives/#QxCI69fIKdTiFrGZ.99

Excerpt: A panel of federal judges voiced significant
concerns Tuesday about the privacy implications of NSA surveillance
tactics during a wide-ranging hearing on a legal challenge brought by the ACLU.
In an oral argument that was set for less than 30 minutes and lasted nearly two
hours, three judges on a panel hearing the case at the Second U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Manhattan probed claims by the ACLU that the federal
government's collection of data relating to "every phone call made or
received by residents of the United States" is illegal and unconstitutional.

Excerpt: “This is a Virginia
restaurant, and we abide by Virginia
state laws, which allow for open carry or concealed carry in a restaurant — so
why should I hinder it? It’s our constitutional right to bear arms,” said Bryan Crosswhite,
owner of the Cajun Experience. “We definitely see more traffic since we started
this. It’s been an overwhelming response.”

In addition to owning a gun-friendly eatery, Mr. Crosswhite
has started an organization that lists other pro-Second Amendment companies
nationally, called www.2amendment.org. He started the venture this winter and
already has 57,000 businesses signed on.

Excerpt: The Islamic State is a nasty problem that can be
remedied if its neighbors, assisted by the United States, decide to do
so. Vladimir Putin’s fascist revival is a crisis
that tests the West’s capacity to decide. Putin’s serial amputations of
portions of Ukraine, which
began with his fait accompli in Crimea, will proceed, and succeed, until his appetite is
satiated. Then the real danger will begin. ... So, suppose Putin, reprising
his Ukrainian success, orchestrates unrest among the Russian-speaking
minorities in Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia. (In a military
contest with Russia
in that area, we use nukes or we lose. ~Bob)

Excerpt: The Democratic candidate in the race against Sen.
Pat Roberts in Kansas
ended his campaign Wednesday, leaving an independent candidate and a
Libertarian candidate to face off against the three-term Republican incumbent. ...
Roberts' executive campaign manager LeroyTowns called the move a
"corrupt bargain" between Democratic leaders and Orman's campaign and
said Orman's independent status is "a smoke screen."

Excerpt: Poroshenko is over a barrel. Russia has
stepped up its campaign, and the Obama administration responded with a clear
signal that the United Statesand the West would provide no meaningful
support to Ukraine – a signal reaffirmed last week when President Obama refused to
call Putin’s aggression an “invasion” and stressed that
a U.S. military confrontation with Russia was
unthinkable. Ukraine’s
army is in retreat and it cannot compete with Russia’s invasion forces. (With
friend/allies like US, who needs enemies? Ahh, that "flexibility."
--Barb)

Race Card News

Eric Holder: A More Dangerous Race-Card Hustler Than Al
Sharpton. By Larry Elder

Excerpt: It’s one thing to watch race hustlers like the Rev.
Al Sharpton bellowing, “No justice, no peace.” But when the attorney general of
the United States
makes false but racially incendiary claims about today’s alleged “pernicious
racism,” we are in uncharted territory.

Holder complains about different prison rates, different
school expulsion rates and longer prison sentences for black boys and men
compared to white boys and men. He equates “equal rights” with “equal results.”
(The writer is one of those uppity black conservatives. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Americans know of the Aryan Nations, "skin
heads," Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and similar groups of white
people who, for any number of reasons, harbor grave animosity toward other
Americans. More specifically, these groups are known for their racial hatred of
blacks. It is a rabid hatefulness that lessens the bearer's humanity. There
exists, however, a hesitancy to examine similar racial hatred in American
blacks. Not only is there a hesitancy to examine such hatred, but it is
forbidden even to voice its existence. I will voice that existence here,
because it needs to be voiced. The existing notion among some leftist black
activists that a person cannot be racist if he is of a minority race without
power is laughable.

Excerpt: Among mostly YaleUniversity
undergraduate students, the Rev. Al Sharpton spokeTuesdayon
how he is against the death penalty, explaining execution does not resolve
problems. SpeakingTuesdayevening
at Woolsey Hall, Sharpton, head of the National Action Network, said the death
penalty doesn’t resolve any justice, and suggested life in jail as a possible
solution. The event was held by the Yale Political Union.(I
can think of one problem it could solve…--G. My position as a senator was that
it should be like a barber shop: Two chairs, no waiting. ~Bob)

Excerpt: St. Louis is now
Ground Zero for the “war on black males”: So named by Spike Lee after a white
cop shot a black teenager, unleashing ten days of riots and rage and free
shopping in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. But here is
what Spike Lee did not say: Black people are winning the war. At least in St. Louis. Black-on-white
crime is an everyday fact of life in this once vibrant city. And more and more
people — the ones who are left, anyway — are wondering why local media refuse
to tell the truth about it.

Excerpt: But Wines revives the canard about blacks being
disproportionately targeted in traffic stops. There actually is a study for
that. ... Blacks constituted 25 percent of all speeders and they were 23
percent of drivers stopped for speeding. Controlling for age and gender, blacks
sped at about twice the rate of whites.

Excerpt: Having spent $26 billion of taxpayers’ money since
2009 inducing hospitals and physicians to install electronic health records
(EHRs), many champions of the effort are dismayed that the EHRs are not
interoperable. That is, they cannot talk to each other — which was the whole
point of subsidizing the effort. ... But what do these EHRs do? What they
do not do is talk to each other. According to the same review, “only
10 percent of ambulatory practices and 30 percent of hospitals were found to be
participating in operational health information exchange efforts.”

Excerpt: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey
finds that 62% of Likely U.S. Voters oppose the president granting amnesty to
millions of illegal immigrants without the approval of Congress. Just 26% are
in favor of Obama's plan, while 12% are undecided. (Which is why he won't act
until after the November election. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Electricity prices for the first half of the year
increased the most in a year-over-year basis since 2009, according to the Energy
Department's statistics arm. U.S. power prices are up
3.2 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration. (Obama and the Green Progressives stick it to the poor and
working class again. And, of course, you too. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Since 2011, the amount of energy produced by the
solar sector has more than doubled. But amidst the solar frenzy, we must
remember the critical issue of scale. Indeed, despite solar's rapid growth, its
output is still being dwarfed by the ongoing growth in hydrocarbons.

That fact can easily be proven by comparing the surge in solar-energy
production with the remarkable growth in domestic oil output.

Excerpt: The Obama administration has been focused on
mitigating carbon emissions, writes Edward Lazear of the Hoover Institution,
rather than adapting to climate change (such as planting crops that can
withstand high heat). The mitigation approach is not cost-effective, and it
will have no impact on the world's warming. Lazear explains that the entire
world emitted 31 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 2012, led by China (responsible for 25 percent of the
emissions) and the United
States (responsible for one-sixth of the
emissions). China's
carbon emissions have increased each year, a trend that puts the country on
track to emit 99 gigatons of carbon by 2014 -- three times the amount the
entire world emits today. But according to Lazear, the 99-gigaton estimate is
unrealistic, because countries increase their energy efficiency as they
develop. Even so, with no emissions growth, by 2041 China would emit the same amount of
carbon dioxide emitted by the entire globe today.

Religion of Peace News

Worth Reading: Urgent Memo
For The President - Re: ISIS. By Andy
Weddington

Excerpt:
Sir, disturbed by the grisly beheading of a second American, Mr. Steve Sotloff
- by the barbarians of ISIS (whom you refer to as ISIL) - I could
not sleep peaceably last night (think George Orwell).

Excerpt: This was Obama's war
and Obama has lost it. It's a failed state in which jihadists are running
around seizing commercial airliners. If Bush had done this it would be on the
front page of every newspaper.

Excerpt: "What are your sources telling you about ISIS
and any cells in the United
States?" Tapper asked. "The people
who collect tactical intelligence on the ground, day-to-day, and this isn't Washington, but people collecting this stuff say they're
here, ISIS is here, they're capable of
striking.

Excerpt: The family of Steven Sotloff, the latest American
journalist beheaded by ISIS, is reportedly "outraged" at the Obama
administration for "deliberate leaks" they interpret as "an
attempt to absolve the administration of inaction."

Excerpt: The intelligence community is pushing back, saying that the growing ISIS threat has been included in the Presidential
Daily Brief over the past year. A former Pentagon official confirms to Fox News
that detailed and specific intelligence about the rise of ISIS was included in the PDB, or the President’s
Daily Brief, for at least a year before the group took large swaths of territory
beginning in June. The official, who asked not to be identified because the PDB
is considered the most authoritative, classified intelligence community product
providing the President with analysis of sensitive international events, said
the data was strong, and “granular” in detail, adding a policy maker “…could
not come away with any other impression: This is getting bad.”

Saudi king warns of
terrorist threat to Europe, US. By Abdullah Al-Shihri and Sameer Yaacoub

Excerpt: The king of Saudi
Arabia has warned that extremists could attack Europe and
the U.S. if there is not a
strong international response to terrorism after the Islamic State group seized
a wide territory across Iraq
and Syria.
While not mentioning any terrorist groups by name, King Abdullah's statement
appeared aimed at drawing Washington and NATO forces into a wider fight against
the Islamic State group and its supporters in the region.

Official: American
May Be Key in ISIS Social Media Blitz. By
Michele Mcphee and Brian Ross

Excerpt: An American college graduate from Boston,
who has been on the run from the FBI for years, is suspected of joining ISIS and
leveraging his computer skills to spread the Iraqi terror group’s propaganda on
social media, a senior law enforcement official told ABC News.

Excerpt: Last night on the O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly
said State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki is in over her head and Deputy
Spokeswoman Marie Harf is really upset about it. Keep in mind Harf and Psaki
both speak on behalf of Secretary of State John Kerry.

Excerpt: As the conflict with the Islamic State (ISIS)
intensifies, a small group of young Americans have been seeking to join
extremist groups in the Middle East, intent on fighting against U.S.
interests. At least seven "wannabes" have been arrested in the last
15 months after trying to travel to join the militant groups, while an eighth —
a former police officer from North Carolina —
was arrested on an unrelated charge after unsuccessfully attempting to join
ISIS in Syria, according to NBC News. (He's saying that because if you
accept the Sharia, etc, as the word of God, it will lead you directly to
becoming a jihadist, dedicated to the spread of Islam by any means necessary. He
has just explained what it means to be a Muslim IF you accept those parts
of the sacred books. All Muslims accept the Quran as the word of God, but not
all accept the Sharia, Sunna, etc, also as the word of God, if they don't, they
don't have to see being Muslim as the same as being jihadist. --Del)

Excerpt: If the nature of the Free Syrian Army’s name was
ambiguous since its inception in 2011, it is clear today that it is nothing but
a label for media consumption. … Announcing their FSA affiliation was a mere
pathway to receiving foreign support. Funders - most notably Saudi Arabia, Qatar and
Kuwait’s
Salafis - were keen on the Islamist identity of the groups receiving support
without requiring them to announce it publicly.

Excerpt: As soon as weapons shipments from the CIA were
arriving in Syria, the
FSA weapons caches were being raided by jihadist groups, including ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the official
al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria,
under very suspicious circumstances. … But by April of this year, the Obama
adminstration’s CIA weapons spigot was turned back on, with the FSA now
receiving heavy weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. And in
late June, President Obama asked Congress for $500 million to arm and train the FSA. (Remember also Liz
O’Bagy outed as an agent for the Syrian rebels, quickly hired by Sen. John
McCain, despite her false credentials….Barb)

Excerpt: Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary,
provided some additional details on last night's airstrike on Shabaab, al
Qaeda's official branch in Somalia.
Shabaab's emir, Ahmed Abdi Godane, a.k.a. Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, was the target of
the strike, which included both drones and manned aircraft, Kirby confirmed.
And the strike hit a Shabaab "encampment" south of Mogadishu

Excerpt: The Pakistani military claimed that 910
"terrorists" and 82 soldiers have been killed since it launched an
operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan
and allied jihadist groups in North Waziristan
in mid-June. Dismissing the military's claims as "complete lies," a
Taliban splinter group denied that hundreds of jihadists had been killed and
said training camps and bomb factories were moved before the operation was
launched.

Excerpt: Islamist militias in Libya
took control of nearly a dozen commercial jetliners last month, and western
intelligence agencies recently issued a warning that the jets could be used in
terrorist attacks across North Africa.

Excerpt: “It seems like the State Department, the Obama
administration, is trying to play down these reports, but the people I talked
to were fairly concerned about them,” Gertz said. “Again, they are trying to
locate these jets. I don’t think the CIA has a full handle on where all of the
aircraft from the airlines were. T

Excerpt: Nurpashi Kulaev, the only surviving Muslim jihadist
who took part in the Beslan Massacre, in which 186 Christian children were
killed, has
affirmed that he feels no guilt for his crime, saying:

Excerpt: India put
several provinces on heightened alert on Thursday after al Qaeda announced the
formation of a wing of the militant group in India and its neighborhood, a
senior government official said. In a video posted online, al Qaeda chief Ayman
al-Zawahri promised to spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of
jihad" across the "Indian subcontinent".

Excerpt: I am a lifelong Democrat, a political liberal, a
Reform rabbi, and for four decades, until last week, a New York
Times subscriber. What drove me away was the paper’s incessant denigration
of Israel,
a torrent of articles, photographs, and op-ed columns that consistently present
the Jewish State in the worst possible light.

Israel
is the Safest Place
for an Arab in the Middle East. Byy Anat Berko

Excerpt: A while ago we went to get the car fixed in one of
the Arab villages in Israel's
northern coastal plain near where my husband was born. The area is a microcosm
of Jewish-Arab coexistence, characterized by the kind of easy relations between
good neighbors. The repair shop is run by a man named Muhammad, who welcomed us
into his office and offered us Turkish coffee with cardamom, in the best Arab
tradition. Despite the complex situation in the Gaza Strip, there was no
tension in the air.

Excerpt: Arguably the UK’s
most successful domestically produced export to Israel has been parliamentary
democracy. Arguably its most successful domestically produced export to the
Arab world has been the anti-Semitic blood libel, the claim that Jews use the
blood of non-Jewish children to bake their Passover matzah or for other ritual
purposes. What is curious is that there are so many in Britain for
whom the latter “achievement” resonates more and finds expression in new
domestic iterations of this hoary, murderous British creation. (I'd like to
believe the average Briton does not buy into this, but given the dominance of
the elite, the media, the universities and the craven kowtowing to Muslims in Britain, I'm
afraid they have been poisoned beyond saving. This seems to already have
happened in Ireland and Scotland. Cordially,
Larry Greenberg)

Excerpt: So it's time to look at some dirty secrets, foreign
correspondent edition.

Trench coats and panamas have given way to sat phones and
moral ambiguity. An ideal starting point in understanding this media ambiguity
– and its occasional, sinister undertones and implications for us – is the
Israel-Hamas war. The penny should have dropped well before today's Gaza crisis. No later
than April 11, 2003, in fact. That day, CNN admitted in the New York Times that
it hid and manipulated reality, though the wording was more delicately
self-regarding.

Excerpt: Nigeria's
militant Islamist group Boko Haram has captured the town of Banki,
which borders Cameroon,
after government troops fled, residents say.

The military has not yet commented on the latest town to
reportedly fall to the insurgents in recent weeks.

Important: Morphing Into ‘Conventional
Army,’ Boko Haram Poised to ‘Explode Any Day, Like ISIS’ Terrorist group's new
"caliphate" makes lightning-fast gains, closing in on a state capital
that, if seized, would tear Nigeria apart and create a huge al-Qaeda base.

Excerpt: As the world’s attention is captured by the
terrifying determination and bloody modus operandi of the Islamic State, an
al-Qaeda affiliate that declared a caliphate last week is sweeping across
northeast Nigeria with lightning-quick efficiency and equally brutal means in a
bid to break up the most populous nation on the continent. (The Nigerian
government never took the steps they should have at least two years ago to
bring the army up to that district and really smash these guys. They let the
cancer grow, and now it's turned into a big tumor, and still growing. We can
only hope the Nigerian President now becomes deadly serious about saving his
country and brings every bit of military power he can muster to go after Boko
Haram all-out, blast them to pieces and take no prisoners. Nothing else has any
chance of stopping this horrible mess. --Del)

Excerpt: An estimated 1,400 girls were groomed, abused, and
raped between 1997 and 2013 by gangs of mostly Pakistani men. Some of the
horrific reports of abuse include stories of being gang raped and
doused with gasoline.
Perhaps equally troubling are reports that the abuse was uncovered in 2001—and
instead of being addressed by police and appropriate authorities, the
whistleblower was instead sent to diversity training after she revealed the
ethnicity of the rapists in her report. (To progressives, child rape is a part
of the beauty of diversity, all cultures being equally valid. ~Bob)

Excerpt: As shocking as the Muslim-run sex ring in
Rotherham, England may seem to some—1,400 British children as young as 11 plied
with drugs before being passed around and sexually abused in cabs and kabob
shops—the fact is that this phenomenon is immensely widespread. In the United Kingdom
alone, it’s the fifth sex abuse ring led by Muslims to be uncovered. Some years
back in Australia,
a group of “Lebanese Muslim youths” were responsible for a “series of brutal
gang rapes” of “Anglo-Celtic teenage girls.”

Excerpt: Under the headline “The World in Flames,” Henry Kissinger warns in
a London Sunday Times op-ed of the consequences of state failure and
anarchy in the Muslim world. Read it carefully: Kissinger reviews the collapse
of America’s
idea of exporting democracy during the Arab Spring and its dire consequences.
He suggests that the US needs
to work with Russia to
put out the fire: Participants in the contests search for outside support,
particularly from Russia and
the US,
in turn shaping relations between them.

1 comment:

I read this faithfully. What is the most depressing to meis the optimism by some that all this bad news can beset right, and we will return to normalcy. This will not happen. The USA is in a death spiral now and it can not be reversed. The best we can do is prepare for that end.